SEC In $25M Settlement Over Life Insurance Fraud

Law360, New York (December 4, 2005, 12:00 AM EST) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a $25 million settlement with a company it probed for allegedly defrauding thousands of terminally ill patients by manipulating their life insurance policies.

The settlement involves three former principals of viatical life insurance company Mutual Benefits Corp., brothers Joel and Leslie Steiner and the company’s former president Peter Lombardi. They allegedly oversaw the defrauding of approximately 31,000 investors by selling more than $1 billion in life insurance policies beginning in 1994.